The Japanese manager's traumatic entry into the United States: Understanding the American-Japanese Cultural Divide

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Executive Overview Japanese executives routinely travel to the United States for business for periods extending up to several years. Their visits typically begin as a jarring experience for them and their families due to the substantial cultural differences they encounter. Despite the success of Japanese business worldwide and the growing presence of Japanese communities in many U.S. cities, Japanese individuals routinely face disorienting experiences in their dealings with Americans, encounters that impede their effectiveness and hamper the business they come here to manage. Such confrontations mirror in microcosm the tensions of contemporary U.S.-Japan relations. They reveal the presence of built-in cultural barriers to Japanese firms in the U.S. that constitute structural impediments every bit as real as the more widely criticized constraints on foreign business in Japan. They also highlight patterns of behavior that Americans must learn to bridle if they are to serve as key players in global instituti...